Remarks at SEIU forum (1199 and 32BJ)

Last night, I spoke at a candidate forum for my race and the 27th Middlesex District in Quincy for members of 1199SEIU and 32BJ. It was a great event. Candidates had 2 minute opening remarks and then went around to tables for questions from members. It was a dense event, with my getting tough questions for about 35 minutes straight, from people doing tough and important work.

The only downside to events like this is that they’re not public, so you don’t know if a candidate is saying one thing to one audience, and something contradictory to another.

In keeping with my ethos of transparency, here are my opening and closing remarks. I didn’t get a chance to record via video, but I did a voice note while speaking. I’ve only edited them to cut out umms and ahs

Opening remarks (2 minutes)

Hi. Thank you very much. So, Chris Oates, I grew up in Canton, just down the road, so if you have any questions about the Karen Reed trial, I can do that for you.

I then went to college in Rhode Island, grad school in England. I became a political risk analyst. So I was covering and forecasting geopolitics, macroeconomics. That's where I got involved in state level policy, because it's where so many of the things that I cared about were happening, but people were not paying attention to it. Certainly not as same as the national level. So I got involved in the ranked choice voting campaign, and then I started a company that makes state government more accessible. None of that's why I'm running for this office. I just tell you that, so you know that I’m qualified.

The reason why I'm running is that I have a four year old son, and the next time this seat might be open again, he could be 34.

Because this is Massachusetts, and people get elected, and they never go away. And what that means is that we don't have a chance to influence things after it happens.

That's not the way democracy is supposed to work. You're not supposed to have to hope that you're elected official supports what you support. You're supposed to go in there, say, hey, you should really pass this bill, with the implication of, if you don't pass it, I might support someone else at the next election.

But here in Massachusetts, we rarely get that somewhat else.

So what that means is in order for us to use our power as voters, as unions, as advocates, as people - is that we need either a different electoral system, which is why I worked on that campaign, and what I wanted to see. Or we need to build statewide coalitions that make it so obvious of what needs to happen, that it is impossible for those in office to refuse.

Because it's very easy to not solve problems. Anyone who's worked around the State House knows, it is so easy to say something nice in a meeting, to co-sponsor a piece of legislation, and then be like, “Oh, I wanted to do it, but, you know, what do you know? Just couldn't happen.”

So that's why I'm running.

Because I think what this district needs is someone who's willing to work so hard building those coalitions, reaching out to those that we don't already have on our side, so that we can actually get things passed.

That's what I want to do. I wanna do the job. I don't want to just have the job.

And I want to be a representative for everyone in our district. Thank you.

Closing remarks (1 minute)

I remember as a kid, my dad's a doctor, and he would be on call. He was at Boston Medical Center, and there would be days where I'd wake up, and he's not there, because he got called out at 3 a.m. to treat some patient who got shot in the middle of the night. And it was just one of those things that you do.

And I think one of the reasons I'm happy to be here is that, if you're working with patients, with other people, you don't get to screw up. You don't get to have a bad day to slack off. Every single interaction you have matters. There are consequences to mistakes.

So what I would ask of you is to hold the same standards that you have for yourself at work with all your elected officials.

Don't let them slack off, don't let them coast. Don't let them have a meeting where they don't really ever commit to anything or you don't think they know what's going on.

Obviously, I hope I'm elected, and I hope that we can work together. But if we ever have a meeting, and you think that I didn't really give it my best, and I didn't deliver to you what you delivered to your people, send an email, and say, “That was really bad, and we want another meeting, and we want you to show up with your best stuff.”

So please, hold me to account.